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David Bradley has found a new career playing William Hartnell playing the First Doctor.

But who is the initial incarnation? And why is he returning to Doctor Who more than 50 years after he first appeared?

(OK, I probably can’t answer that second question. But I’ll do my best to give you a primer on the OG Doctor, ahead of his second coming this Christmas.)

On Nov. 23, 1963, the BBC premiered a children’s science fiction series featuring a centuries-old alien Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels through space and time in his TARDIS.

William Hartnell as the First Doctor (via BBC)

The show’s first lead, William Hartnell, became famous for his portrayal of the character as a curmudgeonly, patronizing, ruthless pensioner, who seemed to care only for his granddaughter, Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford).

Exiles from “another time, another world,” the pair stole a Gallifreyan spaceship/time machine and set up shop in a junkyard on Earth.

But when curious schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright stumble upon the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), they are unwittingly whisked away to the Stone Age—the first of many adventures with the Doctor.

The First Doctor with his final companions, Ben (Michael Craze) and Polly (Anneke Wills) (via BBC)

Mysterious and often unsympathetic, the titular Time Lord had little patience for humans, who he distrusted and didn’t hesitate to put in harm’s way.

But as his exploits continue and his interactions with Earthlings expanded, the First Doctor began to soften; over three years, he grew less selfish and more amiable.

And while he may never win Mr. Congeniality, the original character engendered in every future iteration the virtues of heroism, nonviolence, and wit.

“I am a citizen of the universe, and a gentleman to boot!” the First Doctor tells a policeman in season three serial “The Daleks’ Master Plan.”

William Hartnell as the First Doctor (via BBC)

Six months later—after defeating the Cybermen at the Antarctic Snowcap Station, and with his body “wearing a bit thin”—the Doctor collapsed inside his TARDIS, and, in front of a bewildered Polly and Ben, regenerated for the first time.

Less than a decade after retiring his wing-collared shirt and white wig, Hartnell passed away, forcing the BBC to recast his role in 1983’s 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors (the part went to Richard Hurndall).

Gone but not forgotten, stock footage of Hartnell and Ford was used in series seven finale “The Name of the Doctor” to depict the original theft of the TARDIS. Fiftieth-anniversary episode “The Day of the Doctor” also used archival footage of Hartnell, who was voiced by John Guilor.

William Hartnell’s First Doctor in living color (via BBC America)

“One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back,” the character tells Susan in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth.” “Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.”

That day came in July, when David Bradley appeared as the First Doctor, confronting his current incarnation, Twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi, as the latter resists regeneration.

Together with some old friends—including Ben Jackson (Jared Garfield) and Polly Wright (Lily Travers)—the two Time Lords must save the world before each takes a new shape: Bradley into Second Doctor Patrick Troughton, and Capaldi into Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker.

Perhaps best known as Hogwarts’ cantankerous caretaker in the Harry Potter films, Bradley first appeared on Doctor Who in 2012 episode “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship,” before portraying the late Hartnell in 2013 TV movie An Adventure in Space and Time.

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